Since my starting in MtG, I have been fascinated with the Faerie tribe.
I brewed with them a lot of different builds/decks, ranging from full aggro to tempo/control, however I never found a truly competitive formula to make them work in the Modern environment.
After more than 6 months of betatesting, I finally brewed a working formula under the guise of a
pure control/removal deck.
It gave me good result vs almost all matchup in my FNM/local tournaments, so here we go:
https://deck.tk/7LLA3pKmThe deck is a little tricky to play, since
Bitterblossom sets both the players on a clock: it depletes our life, but depletes the enemy's much faster.
It's our path to victory, yet we can't afford to put it on the field until we are sure that nothing will harm it (aka "I'm in control").
Here the card list with explanation:
4 x
Bitterblossom: our engine. It spawns a 1/1 flying token for 1 life.
Multiple istances of it can speed the game clock toward the end (even ours).
We've got 4 copies of it, so if it's destroyed, we can always replace it.
1 x
Collective Brutality: the little swiss knife.
It can kill small creatures, discard cards from the opponent hand, or refuel a little or primary resource: life.
1 x
Cryptic Command: the BIG swiss knife.
Useful in almost every situation, ranging from countering spells, tapping out enemy's creatures, buying tempo, this card does it.
The only downside: it's mana expensive.
1 x
Dimir Charm: similar to
Collective Brutality in its use.
It can mess with our opponent's plan pretty bad for only 2 mana.
Even when topdecked as a
dead card, you can always use it to adjust your next draw.
Also, it kills things! (the small ones...)
2 x
Dismember: one of the big spot removal in the deck.
You can use it as an emergency removal for 1 mana and 4 life (care
Bitterblossom clock), or just pay a partial BB/2 life, or even the entire cost since we run a lot of black in the deck.
4 x
Fatal Push: new entry for Kaladesh, this card gave new fuel to the previous build.
Use it in conjunction with fecthes or blinking effect (
Quickling/
Mistbind Clique) to remove bigger creatures, or plain use it to remove smaller threats,
1 x
Glen Elendra Archmage: play only when in control
to keep the control.
We don't want to go tapped out when the enemy has some resources in hand, do we?
Anyway, it's a 2x flying counter.
1 x
Go for the Throat: another small spot removal.
Doesn't work with artifacts, but kills pretty much everything else.
4 x Inquisiton of Kozilek: swappable for
Thoughtseize.
It removes threats from the hand at turn 1 with some luck.
Works well with
Surgical Extraction.
4 x
Surgical Extraction: swappable for
Extirpate.
It literally
rapes our opponent deck, hand, and graveyard, while giving us
insight on opponent's plan and strategies.
I don't recommend playing 4 x
Thoughtseize and 4 x
Surgical Extraction, too much toll on our life.
Either 4 x Toughtseize and 4 x
Extirpate OR 4 x
Inquisition of Kozilek and 4 x
Surgical Extraction.
These cards go in combo, so keep them both, or none.
2 x
Mistbind Clique: a 4/4 flying, who can "blink" things, save us from
Bitterblossom and tap out the opponent (giving us a free quasi-Time Walk in the process).
Goes well in combo with
Spellstutter Sprite and
Quickling (especially the
Quickling, you can do some nasty things with both).
2 x
Quickling: a 2/2 flying for 2 mana, who can give us back the
opportunity to play
Spellstutter Sprite or
Mistbind Clique again.
Don't play it as a creature to bash the opponent, unless it's for the win.
Ever.1 x
Remand: it cicles itself and give us time.
Use it to counter big spells.
4 x
Spellstutter Sprite: a little 1/1 flying who likes to counter things.
Goes well in combo with
Mutavault,
Bitterblossom and tokens.
Vendilion Clique: a 3/1 flying with
flash who can remove threats from opponent hand.
1 x
Sword of War and Peace/
Sword of Feast and Famine: one sword for sustain, one sword for keeping the mana open.
Play them when you're in control.
Sometimes you won't even need them (or you won't actually see them).
1 x
Baral's Expertise: another new entry from Kaladesh, swappable for
Yahenni's Expertise if you're more into destroying things.
It's a pretty nasty card, even if expensive.
The only real downside it's that it's a sorcery.
It can bounce back
Spellstutter Sprite/
Mistbind Clique/
Vendilion Clique so we can use them again, or just bounce opponent things out of the battlefield.
Also, free sword,
bitterblossom, or
cryptic command.
Lands wise:
1 x
Creeping Tar Pit: it's a nice land, unblockable and animable for a real cheap cost, but enter the battlefield tapped.
An alternative finisher if things go awry.
2 x
Drowned Catacomb: it will enter always untapped, we've got the ways to do it.
2 x
Ghost Quarter: we don't like those pesky
Inkmoth Nexus, do we?
No, we don't.
2 x
Mutavault: can swing for 2 damage during
dead turn 2 draws.
You can replace Ghost Quarters for a full set if you feel into aggro mood.
4 x
Polluted Delta: a lot of people don't like fetches into Faeries decks.
I like them, however, since they can adjust the mana for a single life point.
2 x
Watery Grave: a mana fixer, but I don't recommend to abuse them.
The deck is already life expensive as it is.
Final note: I didn't include
Scion of Oona because... I really don't like that card.
I tried to fit it into every single build of my faerie deck, and it always sorted out to be a
dead card.
It's one of the cards that people try to cram into every faerie build, but it does few things apart from protecting your creatures from a spot removal (and if you play
bitterblossom, you don't care about spot removals at all).
The +1/+1 is nice, but then
Favorable Winds does the same, while being an enchantment (more difficult to remove).
Sure, it can protect
Bitterblossom, maybe even Vendilion/Mistbind, but Spellstutter can do that too.
I think it's better to have a nice spot removal/counter set instead of Scion.
If the cost were to be a 1U or even UU, I would have included it.
Any thoughts?